capt pete

To: Bill Greer, Florida Sportsman Magazine "Big Bend" writer.

Your January FS Northwest Action Spotter "best bet" tip was spot on! That is my main reason for contacting you. Ironically, I never had the time (poor excuse) to read that issue along with a dozen more issues that keep staring at me. For the past month, Bill Wilson and I have been fishing a creek that flows into the eastern end of Choctowhatchee Bay, about a 20 minute drive from my home in Niceville. Bill was formerly with the Florida Fish Commission. He was primarily a live bait angler and never fished with a metal jig in all of his 83 years.

This creek (more like a small river) has quite a few deep holes that belies its narrow width. The deepest, thus far, is 41 feet. The first trip was on Bill's 14 ft river skiff. I am a passionate metal jig angler but decided to go with Bill's recommendation of casting soft plastics. That went on for about five hours without a strike and noticing other anglers with the same problem. Bill has a very modest 5 inch fishfinder on his boat that he does not use for a variety of reasons. In contrast, I preach locating the fish before fishing. Finally, it was time for me to fire-up that unit. In short order, a whole new world opened up to us. I was shocked at the numerous deep holes we discovered. It took six more holes until we located the fish in a 10 to 26 foot sloping hole tucked into a wooded shoreline. After about nine spotted seatrout and redfish on consecutive drops, Bill decided to change his "religion"! For the next hour, we added mangrove snapper and largemouth bass to our tally until dusk set in. Almost all were caught on a bare 1/4 oz gold Kandlefish. It was on subsequent trips that we stumbled into the tarpon in that same hole. It was the same technique...gently bottom-bouncing that gold Kandlefish in a slow current. Enclosed are several tarpon photos that show the gold jig in the their jaws. The one fish, held in the photo, was a quick 12 second release. NOTE: I TRIED TO ATTACH FIVE PHOTOS TO THIS REPORT AND FINALLY GAVE UP OUT OF FRUSTRATION...SORRY!

Sincerely,

Pete